How do you decide what type of bar to have at your wedding reception? It really depends on how much you are willing to spend. If you are inviting guests who tend to consume lots of alochol, your tab for the night will become pretty pricey if you choose to provide an open bar. There are about five options of bars to have at the reception:
1) Open Bar:
An open bar contains everything from hard liquor, beer, wine, and soft drinks. The bride and groom pick up the tab from the open bar as the guests drink free. It is a nice way of saying, "Thank you for coming to our wedding. Let's celebrate!" The only way to limit the costs of an open bar is by offering house brands of hard liquor, rather than premium brands. However, either way you look at it, this is still the priciest option. If budget is not a restriction in planning your wedding, I say... go for the open bar! In my opinion, your guests will let loose, feel more comfortable, and you will have more fun creating special memories to last a lifetime.
2) Cash Bar:
A cash bar is the complete opposite of an open bar. This type of bar is exactly as it sounds, the guests must pay cash in order to receive an alcoholic or soft drink at your reception. Some people may consider a cash bar to be tacky, as they think it is not appropriate to ask your guests to pay for anything at the reception. However, if budget is a big issue selecting this type of bar may be in your best interest. A way to warn your guests and avoiding them being disappointed upon arival of the reception, indicate on your wedding invitation with a phrase such as, "Dinner buffet with cash bar". Most guests understand the high costs of wedding plannings.
3) Limited Bar:
Just as the name says, you are allowed to limit what types of alcohol are served. You could choose to only offer beer and wine, or even just a few signature drinks instead. Signature drinks are actually quite trendy right now and can initially save the bride and groom lots of money. You select one or two special mixed drinks and those will be the only drinks served at the bar.
You could potentiallly choose to mix the cash bar and limited bar together. The bride and groom could pick up the tab for that of the signature drinks, but if some guests decide they would rather drink something else, the cost is on them.
4) Combination Bars:
These bars grant wedding guests a limited amount of drink tickets. The tickets are usually sent out with the wedding invitation. Once the tickets have been used at the reception, the guests are responsible to pay for drinks if they desire more. Combination bars also include the option of supplying free drinks up until dinner is served. Afterwards guests are expected to pay for their own drinks.
5) Do-it-yourself Bars:
DIY bars are definitely the choice for money savers, and guests will still receive their drinks for free. Basic liquor can be purchased from a wholesaler. This would include vodka, gin, rum, bouron, scotch, a basic red wine and a white wine, one or two brands of popular beers. Along with these many choices of alcohol, a few popular mixes could be purchased as well. For example, orange juice, cranberry juice, coke, ginger ale and tonic. One thing to keep in mind is that most liquor stores will take back unopened containers/bottles as returns. Therefore, it is clearly better to have too much liquor than not enough. DIY bars will also require a bartender, bar towels, ice bins, glasses, lemons, limes, and cocktail napkins. You will also be responsible for contacting your reception venue and receive concent from them in order to supply your own liquor.
Whatever bar option you decide to choose, do not go in debt over it. Only plan a wedding reception you can truly afford. It will cause less stress planning it as well as less stress after everything is all over.
So, now I turn to you! What bar option would you choose and why?
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